The hydrochlorination of an alkanol is an old and well-documented process. Both catalyzed and uncatalyzed processes have been proposed. Also gas phase and liquid phase reactions have been proposed. Most are plagued with high yields of the by-product diether of the alkanol and wet alkyl halide product, both of which create problems in recovery and a waste of reactants. The reaction is exothermic in nature and follows the general rule of thumb for such reactions that an increase in temperature increases the rate of reaction. Further, the reaction as normally operated commercially exhausts to the environment alkyl halide, hydrogen halide, dialkyl ether and contaminated aqueous reaction mixture unless collected and further processed in pollution control processes. The standard method of drying and removing the ether is by contacting it with concentrated sulfuric acid. This produces a dilute sulfuric acid stream contaminated with alkyl sulfate from the ether sulfuric acid reaction that presents a difficult problem of disposal. If discharged into surface water, a large source of sulfate ions is introduced into the stream resulting in a reduction in dissolved oxygen in the stream. The present process does not have a need for sulfuric acid except for extreme purification or drying wherein only dilution of the sulfuric acid with water occurs. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a closed system process which reduces the amount of dialkyl ether produced as well as dialkyl ether, hydrogen halide and aqueous acid released to the environment. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a process for producing substantially dry ether-free alkyl halide.